The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives

Packed with info, strong views and passion Athan The Unbanking of America is better than a treatise on US consumer financial services has any right to be.Author Lisa Servon, a university professor, has dedicated a large part of her life to this book, exploring “unbanked” America from every possible aspect: the data (which she found inadequate), the literature (often straight from the author, such as Sudhir Venkatesh of Freakonomics fame), the history of the relevant regulation (again, under the guidance of experts), a survey of fintech initiatives (straight from the founders) and, most significantly, the pe. What check cashers, payday lenders and loan sharks teach us about how the poor can survive in America Jeffrey Ashe I found Servon's book a concise and compelling story of how the ways the poor manage their finances when banks are increasingly uninterested in serving them. Check cashers charge a lot but their fees are transparent, they know your name and they are open when you need them. Payday loans serve a purpose but unless you can pay back in two weeks these loans are almost impossible to pay back. Even money lenders have their role if you don't get in too deep and payback the loans quickly. The most promising alternative are the savings circles (ROSCAS) - where a group of ten or . Entertaining and eye-opening. It's good to see the curtain pulled back. Amazon Customer This book disarms the blind belief that all check cashing and payday lenders are the spawn of satan, and that big banks like Chase and Wells Fargo are guardian angels. This book changed my perception of the financial industry overnight. After reading the book, I find it amusing that big banks refer to check cashers as "predatory," when the banks themselves are much more deceptive about their fees. The pot is calling the kettle black. Sure, the check cashers are more upfront about the true costs of their services, but the banks hide their high prices in 40 pages of fine p

This is an important book.” —Jake Halpern, author of Bad Paper What do an undocumented immigrant in the South Bronx, a high-net-worth entrepreneur, and a twenty-something graduate student have in common? All three are victims of our dysfunctional mainstream bank and credit system. Banks, with their monthly fees and high overdraft charges, take advantage of these fluctuations rather than help their lower- and middle-income customers manage them.   Lisa Servon delivers provocative dispatches from inside a range of banking alternatives serving a steadily increasing number of Americans. Today nearly half of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck, as income volatility has doubled over the past thirty years. She works as a teller at RiteCheck, a check-cashing business in the South Bronx; as a payday lender in Oakland, California; and looks closely at the workings of a tanda, an informal lending club. “A startling and absorbing exposé Required reading for fans of muckraking authors like Barbara Ehrenreich.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review   “A smart, lucid, and original take on how our banking system became such a mess. And she delivers fascinating, hopeful portraits of the entrepreneurs reacting to the unbanking of America—and

The unbanked may be leading the way!"—Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family   “Lisa Servon is one gutsy professor.  Unlike so many academics – who just theorize – she lived her story.  She actually rolled up her sleeves and worked as a teller and a loan collector in several poor neighborhoods.  She also provides a smart, lucid, and original take on how our banking system became such a mess.  This is an important book.”—Jake Halpern, a